To better illustrate the degree to which this permit has been blatantly ignored by a majority of those involved in the PTTS, we have the 2011 Tarpon Tag public records provided by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). These are the records for the entire State of Florida. Also take a moment to note, of the returned cards, how many PTTS Captains do you see on this list? Check the number of the returned tags as compared to the total number of fish weighed by the PTTS in 2011, notice anything amiss here?

All this mishandling of Tarpon for nothing more than higher TV ratings, and they can

[/vc_column_text] [vc_column_text width=”2/3″ el_position=”first”]

Customer Name

Process Date

ABBOTT , CRAIG W

5/17/2011

ALBANO , CATHERINE A

5/20/2011

ALSTROM , WILLIAM C

7/2/2010

ANDERSON , MICHAEL T

5/18/2011

ANDRETTA , RICHARD L

5/18/2011

BALCH , CLYDE R

5/4/2011

BALL , CARL VERNON

3/7/2011

BARTON , MATTHEW T

6/1/2011

BAUGHER , ANNE C

5/20/2011

BAUGHER , ANNE C

6/9/2011

BEASLEY , JAMES B

5/19/2011

BERGER , COLBY L

5/11/2011

BISHOP , BAKER O

5/19/2011

BISHOP , WILLIAM D

7/12/2010

BLINCO , ANDREW D

12/3/2010

BOLIN , MICHAEL S

6/8/2011

BORDAS , MARTIN EDWARD

6/14/2011

BOWER , MATTHEW J

6/10/2011

BOWLER , STEPHEN F

5/17/2011

BULLARA , CRAIG P

6/17/2011

BURBACH , WILLIAM C

5/19/2011

BURKE , MICHAEL T

2/9/2011

BURNSED , CORDULA

4/26/2011

CAMPBELL , ROBERT T

5/18/2011

CARTAYA , ARIANNY S

11/10/2010

CARTER JR , ALAN JAMES

6/8/2011

CAYO , DONALD F

5/20/2011

CHANCEY , BENJAMIN E

5/20/2011

CHAPMAN , CHRISTINE HELEN

6/8/2011

CHAPMAN , JULIE T

5/16/2011

CHIVAS , KARSON ALEXANDER

5/26/2011

CHIVAS , KARSON ALEXANDER

5/26/2011

CLEMENS , SCOTT A

5/20/2011

COBLE , THANH V

8/9/2010

COKER , FITZ L

1/6/2011

COKER , FITZ L

4/29/2011

COLLINS , MICHAEL J

3/2/2011

CRIDER , CURTIS M

5/20/2011

DEATON , DOLORES

5/17/2011

DEBRUIN , ADAM B

3/11/2011

DENICK , DAVID J

1/20/2011

DENICOLA , JOHN

5/20/2011

DENNIS , CLYDE W

6/3/2011

DENNISON , DAVID M

5/10/2011

DENNISON , DAVID M

5/24/2011

DIAMANDI , NINO

9/27/2010

DILLINGHAM , MARK A

5/6/2011

DINES , WILLIAM RUSSELL

7/13/2010

DOLL , SHAY

4/1/2011

DOPIRAK , ALLAN B

4/29/2011

DOUGLAS , RAYMOND

2/10/2011

DUNCAN , CHARLES W

7/12/2010

DUNCAN , LESLIE R

6/24/2011

DYER , KEVIN A

5/4/2011

ERRA , ROBERT L

4/19/2011

ERSCH , CYNTHIA C

6/20/2011

FEUSTEL , JEAN-PAUL

5/20/2011

FIELD , PATRICK

6/3/2011

FISCHER , ZACHARY C

5/20/2011

FLOYD , JESSICA M

6/16/2011

FRENCH , ANTHONY D

3/21/2011

FRENCH , ANTHONY D

6/3/2011

GARN , JAMES R

4/29/2011

GAY-LAWTON , DEBORAH A

5/19/2011

GERZENY , ZACHARY R

7/2/2010

GILMOUR , TERENCE J

2/15/2011

GLOVER , KEVIN R

7/8/2010

GOOGINS , BRYAN C

5/19/2011

GRIFFIN , RICHARD GEORGE

5/19/2011

GRIFFING III , STEPHEN F

6/3/2011

GRIZZAFFE , HEATHER N

5/17/2011

HAGAMAN , JEFFREY T

5/9/2011

HALEY , PHILLIP L

5/20/2011

HALEY , PHILLIP L

5/20/2011

HALFORD , KIM L

3/29/2011

HAND , JOHN K

1/21/2011

HARKAVY , HEATHER M

4/4/2011

HARLESS , ROBERT G

6/3/2011

HART , WILLIAM D

6/2/2011

HARTMAN , PHILIP E

6/13/2011

HAXTER , MICHAEL

3/29/2011

HELENEK , ANTHONY J

7/2/2010

HELENEK , DANIEL E

5/13/2011

HERRINGTON JR , EDDIE J

7/2/2010

HILTON , SHAWN M

5/12/2011

HIPPS , DAVID E

5/20/2011

HOCTEL , GARY M

3/21/2011

HOOD , GREGORY C

4/25/2011

HOWARD , CHARLES P

5/25/2011

HUDDLESTON , JAMES W

4/19/2011

HUESTON JR , RONALD C

5/17/2011

IDE , PETER S

10/21/2010

JOHNSON , GERARD J

5/17/2011

JOHNSON , GERARD J

5/25/2011

JOHNSTON , GRANT D

6/16/2011

JOINER , GARY W

5/20/2011

JOINER , GARY W

6/3/2011

JONES , MELISSA D

5/20/2011

JORDAN , RICHARD E

5/18/2011

JUSTUS , CHARLES P

5/20/2011

JUSTUS , SUE M

6/15/2011

KENNICUTT , KATHERINE ANN

5/27/2011

KILPATRICK , JOHN S

4/29/2011

KLEIN , TIMOTHY J

4/6/2011

KOPEL , MICHAEL D

5/26/2011

KOPEL , MICHAEL D

6/2/2011

LACHANCE , GREGORY S

7/9/2010

LAMP , STEVEN

3/4/2011

LINVILLE , NATHANIEL C

3/31/2011

LOCKE , WALTON T

4/7/2011

LOGGINS , JOHN L

5/31/2011

LONG , DANIEL J

5/18/2011

LONG , DANIEL J

6/9/2011

LONG , JAMES E

5/17/2011

LOWREY , SAM C

5/20/2011

MANNING , CHAD W

6/9/2011

MANNING , JAMES R

5/19/2011

MARSH , MARK L

3/30/2011

MARTEL , ROLAND P

5/11/2011

MASHKE , EDWARD J

5/12/2011

MASSARO JR , FRANK L

5/25/2011

MATHIEU , MARK A

8/18/2010

MCBRIDE , BRETT A

5/17/2011

MCKEEVER , RICHARD A

4/6/2011

MCLAY , JOHN P

5/10/2011

MCLAY , JOHN P

6/1/2011

MCLOAD , MICHAEL B

2/23/2011

MEYER , CHARLES B

5/5/2011

MILL , ANDY R

3/4/2011

MILLER , ASHLEND MARIE

6/3/2011

MILLER , GARY C

5/20/2011

MILLER , WAYNE D

5/16/2011

MINIO , ANTHONY J

5/27/2011

MITCHELL , GRETCHEN J

5/12/2011

MOENNING , DANIEL K

5/18/2011

MOENNING , DANIEL K

5/31/2011

MOENNING , DANIEL K

6/17/2011

MOHLER , THOMAS LEE

3/21/2011

MORGAN , THANE

9/20/2010

MORGAN , THANE

5/12/2011

NABOZNY , STANELY

5/23/2011

NAVARRE , CARL

3/7/2011

NORMAN , SPENCER A

5/16/2011

NORMAN , SPENCER A

6/1/2011

NORRIS , BRETT J

5/13/2011

NUTE , HEIDI J

7/2/2010

NUTTER , TERENCE J

5/10/2011

OLSON , VERN A

5/19/2011

ONEILL , CHRISTOPHER T

5/23/2011

PARKER , DARRICK A

3/2/2011

PEIPER , DOUGLASS H

6/9/2011

PERRY , JOHN H

4/25/2011

PERRY , JOHN H

5/20/2011

PILLINGER , MICHAEL G

5/18/2011

PRICE , ARTHUR H

5/27/2011

PROSEK , JAMES O

3/3/2011

PURDY , DANWIN M

1/21/2011

RAHIMI , SHAHROUZ

12/2/2010

REARK , MICHAEL FREDERICK

5/12/2011

REDDING , CURTIS F

8/2/2010

REILY , RONALD M

5/26/2011

ROEHM , JAMES D

7/13/2010

ROGERS , JOSEPH E

5/19/2011

ROSATO , LINDSAY A

5/17/2011

RUDLAFF , FRANK R

4/27/2011

RUDOLPH , DIANA A

5/9/2011

SANCHEZ , JOSE R

9/17/2010

SAPP , JILL W

6/15/2011

SCOTT , CHRISTY M

5/27/2011

SECHRIST , RICHARD C

5/17/2011

SEO , TAEWON

8/6/2010

SHAFRON , DAMIAN J

5/19/2011

SHEA , DALE J

1/21/2011

SHINNER , ERIC MATHEW

5/19/2011

SIMPSON , ROBERT M

3/29/2011

SINOPOLI , MICHAEL

4/27/2011

SISKA , THOMAS A

6/6/2011

SKROVANEK , LEWIS R

5/19/2011

SLOAN , STEPHEN M

5/10/2011

SLONIM , CURT DAVID

5/25/2011

SMITHART , CLARENCE J

7/9/2010

SOOKRAJ , SEEPERSAD

8/19/2010

SPARLING , DALE T

2/17/2011

SPINKS , JOHN W

5/23/2011

STALVEY , BRANDY N

5/16/2011

STALVEY , BRANDY N

5/25/2011

STARK , DAVID A

3/28/2011

STARK , DAVID A

4/5/2011

STEWART , THOMAS J

4/25/2011

STEWART , THOMAS J

5/23/2011

STOKER , ROBERT L

5/20/2011

SYDNOR JR , JAMES L

5/20/2011

TARI , JASON L

4/29/2011

THAYER , GREG A

6/2/2011

THOMAS , SABRINA N

5/25/2011

THOMPSON , ANDREW S

5/19/2011

THORNHILL , CHRIS D

3/29/2011

TIMMONS , BRIAN J

5/19/2011

TIMMONS , BRIAN J

6/16/2011

TODD , DONETTE CLARK

6/13/2011

TRAVIS , ROYAL T

6/2/2011

TYSON , ROBERT W

6/9/2011

TYSON , ROBERT W

6/16/2011

VANHORN , RAY A

5/2/2011

VASILAROS , JACK W

5/12/2011

VIZARRO , VICTOR A

5/23/2011

WALLACE , SCOTT A

5/10/2011

WALPOLE , SARA E

4/14/2011

WEAVER , CRAIG A

5/18/2011

WEBER , SCOTT P

6/2/2011

WEEKS , MICHAEL S

5/16/2011

WEEKS , MICHAEL S

5/16/2011

WELLS JR , MICHAEL D

5/26/2011

WERT , JAMIE A

5/20/2011

WERT , JAMIE A

6/10/2011

WHITE , JAMES E

5/12/2011

WHITE , JAMES E

5/25/2011

WHITE , THOMAS QUINTON

6/2/2011

WHITWORTH , JOSEPH JOHN

5/17/2011

WILLIAMS , BRANDON

4/29/2011

WILLIAMS , DAVID G

4/29/2011

WILLIAMS , GARTH F

4/29/2011

WILLIS , JAMES R

5/11/2011

WISE , BRITTNEY N

5/23/2011

WISE , KELLY A

5/18/2011

WITFOTH , LISA SWANN

5/18/2011

WITHERS , AMY M

5/20/2011

WITTER , CONSTANCE C

4/20/2011

WOODROFFE , WILLIAM W

5/16/2011

ZOELLNER , VICTORIZ E

5/6/2011

[/vc_column_text] [vc_column_text width=”1/3″ el_position=”last”]

Tags returned (as mandated by State Law) for FY 2010/2011.

Please note: those who did not return their Tarpon Tags as required within 5 days of use are prohibited to purchase future Tarpon Tags. Scroll down to review Rule.

68B-32.003 Tarpon Tags: Required for Possession; Report; Annual Issuance; Taxidermy; Limitation on Number of Tags Issued Annually; Limitation on Number of Tags Issued to Professional Fishing Guides.

(1) No person shall take, kill, or possess any tarpon, unless such person has purchased a tarpon tag and securely attached it through the lower jaw of the fish. Within 5 days after the landing of a tagged tarpon, the person possessing it shall submit a form to the Commission (Form DMF-SL3200 (3-05), incorporated herein by reference) indicating the length, weight, and physical condition of the tarpon and the date and location where the fish was caught. Additional tags may be denied to any person or guide who fails to provide the required information.

(2) Tarpon tags are valid for the period beginning July 1 each year and continuing through June 30 of the following year or until used, whichever occurs first. Before August 15 of each year, each tax collector shall submit to the Commission all unused tags for the previous license year along with a written audit report as to the number of unused tags, on forms provided by the Commission (Form DMF-SL3210 (3-05), incorporated herein by reference). Tarpon tags are nontransferable, except for those distributed by professional fishing guides pursuant to subsection (5).

(3) Subsection (1) shall not apply to anyone who immediately returns a tarpon uninjured to the water at the place where the fish was caught. The prohibition of possession of an untagged tarpon in subsection (1) shall not apply to a taxidermist who removes the tag during the process of mounting a tarpon. The removed tag shall remain with the fish during any subsequent storage or shipment.

(4) In any license year, the total number of tarpon tags issued shall not exceed 2,500.

(5) Each professional fishing guide may purchase tarpon tags for subsequent transfer to individual customers; provided, however, that the total number of tags issued during any license year to professional fishing guides shall not exceed 1,250.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission issued the following policy statement at its June meeting:

“Proper handling techniques ensure the best chance of survival. This includes returning the fish to the water as quickly as possible.”

Although the FWC was referring to snook in this instance, the statement signals the commission understands that “returning the fish to the water as quickly as possible” and “best chance of survival” doesn’t mean gaffing a snook, towing a snook to the beach, tossing a snook into a sling, weighing it, posing it for photos, dragging it to deep water and running it over with your outboard.

In other words, the PTTS definition of “proper handling techniques.”

The FWC might, just might, have a problem explaining how all this is bad for snook, but good for tarpon.

This article was contributed by Captain Mark Bennett, a local full-time fishing guide in the Charlotte Harbor and Boca Grande region. For more information on his Snook, Redfish, and Tarpon fishing charters, please visit tarponsnook.com.

In the three years that I was tagging (DNA sampling) tarpon I dominated the competition. Tagging and releasing more adult tarpon than anyone, anywhere in the world. I set a record in 2009 for tagging 147 tarpon in one season. Since the program started in 2005, previously no one had ever even come close to this number in one season. Previously only one person ever broke 100. In 2010, I tagged 148. April through July 2011, I tagged 165 at which point I ceased to tag tarpon for the remainder of the season.

Even stopping early, in July, I still tagged more tarpon than anyone on the West Coast of Florida and more adult tarpon than anyone anywhere.

Unfortunately, because of several unethical actions of the FWRI and it’s employees that were recently (some not so recently) brought to my attention, such as advertising, promoting and endorsing a tournament series that undeniably is the number one greatest threat to the health of the Florida tarpon fishery, I can not in good conscience continue to help in their agenda.

I honestly thought the research they were doing was meant to help tarpon, not kill them.

2011 was my last year DNA sampling tarpon.

What did they do?

Funny, I have been asked that question many times this season. The answer is not what did they do, but what they are doing every weekend in May and June. The tournament series they promote kills just about every tarpon weighed. They drag the tarpon all of the way to the beach to be weighed and photographed. The FWRI and FWC are there DNA sampling the fish that come in to the scale. They see this happening and do nothing. They also stand around while the tournament officials slit the bellies and pop the eyes of the tarpon that are already dead or are too exhausted to make it. This is done so there are less dead fish floating on the surface the next day. The majority of the fish weighed are the largest females that the FWRI says can be 40-50 years old. The damage to the tarpon fishery can not be undone in many lifetimes. This affects tarpon populations all over the state, not just Boca Grande.

Tarpon from all over the state come here to spawn.

I first heard of the Tarpon Genetic DNA tagging program in March ’09. I was browsing the Florida Wildlife Research Institute’s website. I was interested in the findings of the past and thought I could help out by tagging a lot of tarpon that upcoming season.

What really got my attention was they were keeping track of how many samples each guide/fisherman obtained. This was a way to FINALLY show who caught the most tarpon over an entire season. Some of the best tarpon guides from all over the state are already involved. Any and all naysayers are invited to participate.

Put up or shut up…What a concept!

How do you get a DNA Sample from a tarpon?

Essentially, when a tarpon is boat side, I grab the leader in one hand and the fish by the lower jaw. Then I rub a piece of scotch-brite pad on the side of his upper jaw. Then the pad is placed into a small vial that is index numbered by the FWRI. Lastly, I record all of the pertinent information about the fish size, weight, capture location etc.

That is a little easier said than done. First and foremost a photo for my client with his or her fish is my number one priority. Secondly, holding onto a less than happy fish with your hands that weighs over 100 pounds is not that easy to begin with. Then adding scrubbing his face with a scotch-brite pad. It tends to make them a bit perturbed to say the least. During the course of the season if I got samples off of 50% of the tarpon we landed I felt good about it.

This program gives the recreational anglers a chance to see how their numbers stack up against the pros and it gives the pros a chance to put their money where their mouth is.

Actual numbers from the 2011 season were withheld by the FWRI for some unknown reason. One of the many mysteries we have become used to from the FWRI.

Below are the numbers from 2009 and 2010:

May and June Tarpon Challenge Results

Hello Tarpon DNA Anglers,

We are also pleased to announce that Capt. Mark Bennett is the winner of the 2nd annual Markett Tarpon Challenge for 2010.

Capt. Mark Bennett has claimed this honor for the second consecutive year-by collecting 95 samples during the months of May and June.

Hats off to the Miller’s Ale House PTTS team captained by Artie Price. His Miller’s Ale House team caught and weighed a 154 pound tarpon to win Week 2 of the PTTS 2011 season.

But Price didn’t get the job done all by himself. The Miller’s Ale House PTTS team of Greg Devault and Frank Massaro, both of New Port Richey, plus Myakka’s Jon Turner also share credit for “gettin’ ‘er done.”

Unfortunately for Miller’s Ale House, the boys aboard Price’s Miller’s Ale House boat left Miller’s Ale House with something of a public relations black eye where Florida law is concerned. You see, the boys aboard Price’s Miller’s Ale House boat didn’t really get the job done that week. Not the whole job. They probably guessed nobody would notice.

Putting a $50 tarpon tag on that 154-pounder they weighed got just half the job done for the Miller’s Ale House team. But FWC regulations say, quite clearly, that the Miller’s Ale House team was required by law to finish the job by returning a tag card to the state within five days of its Miller’s Ale House 2011 Week 2 PTTS victory. These cards, to be filled out by the angler who “possessed” the tarpon, help the FWC with its conservation efforts. Especially in Boca Grande Pass. The tag cards tell FWC researchers where the fish was caught, its condition, its size and other useful tarpon conservation information. Useful, only if someone cares enough and takes the time to put the tag card in the mail.

According to FWC records, Miller’s Ale House captain Artie Price never returned the required tag card for that tarpon the Miller’s Ale House team caught in Week 2. Miller’s Ale House team member Greg Devault never returned the required tag card for that tarpon the Miller’s Ale House team caught in Week 2. Miller’s Ale House team member Jon Turner never returned a tag for that tarpon the Miller’s Ale House team caught in Week 2. Miller’s Ale House team member Frank Massaro never returned a tag for that tarpon the Miller’s Ale House team caught in Week 2.

Here's one of the tarpon which Team Ale House weighed without using a legal tarpon tag.

In fact, it seems nobody aboard the boat sponsored by Miller’s Ale House bothered to return a card for that 154-pound tarpon the Miller’s Ale House team caught in Week 2 of the PTTS. Or, for that matter, any other week during the 2011 PTTS season. Cards returned for tarpon caught last year in Boca Grande Pass: 38. Cards returned last year for tarpon caught in Boca Grande Pass by the Miller’s Ale House team of Price, Devault, Turner and Massaro: 0. That’s zero. Zilch. Nada. None.

According to FWC records the Miller’s Ale House team never caught that 154-pounder. According to FWC records the Miller’s Ale House team didn’t capture, gaff, drag and weigh that 154-pounder. According to FWC records the Miller’s Ale House team couldn’t have won Week 2 of the 2011 PTTS, Miller’s Ale House couldn’t have won that nice new boat. That’s because, according to FWC records, Miller’s Ale House wasn’t there. According to FWC records, in 2011 the Miller’s Ale House team didn’t exist.

Except it did. It was on the TV.

The Miller’s Ale House team that went out and got the job done in Week 2 couldn’t be bothered to take the time or make the effort to get the whole job done as state law requires. But we understand. Filling out those forms, putting them in an envelope, spending money on stamps and hiking these things out to the mailbox can be inconvenient and expensive for a Miller’s Ale House team whose career PTTS winnings as of Week 2 of the 2011 season totaled a scant $300,000.

And really, who’s going to notice? Where tarpon regulations are concerned, it’s easy for teams like Miller’s Ale House to get away with just about anything with a wink and a nod. And even though FWC regulations state that failure to return a tag card can cost you the privilege of purchasing future possession tags and weighing fish in future PTTS tournaments, nobody in Tallahassee is paying attention to any of this. Either is the PTTS. Either, apparently, is Miller’s Ale House. Maybe they should.

In 2011 the tarpon tag program generated little more than $15,000 for the FWC. Care to guess how much the FWC spent on administrative and other costs associated with the tarpon tag? Care to guess what four letters benefitted most from what, in reality, is a financial drain on an agency that can better use its resources just about anywhere else than subsidizing a television show?

Sponsors like Miller’s Ale House need to spend a little time questioning what’s going on in their name in Boca Grande Pass, what’s going on their name in the Professional Tarpon Tournament Series and what’s going on in their name aboard the boats bearing their name.

If a law so simple and basic and beneficial as returning a tarpon tag card to the state agency that oversees Florida’s conservation efforts is being so blatantly ignored, it should give sponsors pause to ask what else is or isn’t happening inside this sports exhibition called the PTTS? Are those aboard all those boats all wrapped up in all those logos for all those folks at home to see really playing by the rules, following the regulations and obeying the law?

Is it honestly worth taking the chance that their team, their PTTS, their television show and, by association, their valuable brand name might – like team Miller’s Ale House – not be getting the whole job done?

The Professional Tarpon Tournament Series (PTTS) in Boca Grande Florida.

The gift of world-class Tarpon fishing in Boca Grande is a precious resource given to all of us to enjoy and be enriched by. It is a gift we must all work together to preserve and respect. However, some for-profit businesses have decided to make a fishing tournament designed to “enrich” their own pockets while unnecessarily compromising this resource for their own financial gain. If you think the PTTS (Professional Tarpon Tournament Series) is cool, that’s because it has been cleverly designed to achieve this response. It is through the emotional response triggered by “good TV” that you happily turn your money over to them in one way or another. And every time they have an angler or professional guide defend their tactics or participate in their tarpon tournament, they laugh all the way to the bank. They are disrupting and damaging a fishery that doesn’t exclusively belong to them–it belongs to all of us and our children.

What’s wrong with a tarpon tournament in Boca Grande, you ask? Well, nothing. (Here’s a link to one of the conservation-minded tarpon tournaments.) There are plenty of other Tarpon tournaments which pose no threat to the waterways or fishery. However, the PTTS is not one of them. It has purposely adopted unethical fishing practices to help facilitate higher TV ratings–fishing practices that have long been known to the angling community (and almost all other fishing tournaments) as outdated and unsportsmanlike.

The gaffing, dragging, weighing, and often subsequent death of the Tarpon are for nothing more than increased TV ratings and shows a blatant disregard for the fishery. By glorifying this damaging process on National television, it also actively promotes the same contemptuous behavior to recreational anglers who use the TV show as a guide for how to fish for Tarpon in and around Boca Grande Pass. Now, outside of the hours of the tournament, you are seeing recreational anglers, and even their fishing guides, dragging exhausted Tarpon to the beach for a photo op. Additionally, the dangerous and disrespectful boat operations also promoted through the PTTS television show has created an entire group of individuals who try to emulate these behaviors upon their visit to Boca Grande. This endangers the lives and livelihood of the residents and law-abiding citizens who also use Boca Grande Pass and its surrounding waters.

The PTTS is owned and operated by the Tarpon Anglers Club. Again, don’t be fooled. This is not a non-profit anglers club happily created to promote sportfishing. It is a for profit LLC registered in the State of Florida. Here are the current State records available on sunbiz.org.

For many of the locals, you know Gary Ingman as owner and President of Ingman Marine, a boat dealership in Sarasota, Placida and Port Charlotte. Many in support of ethical angling have directly asked Gary to change these harmful, unsportsmanlike, and outdated aspects of the tournament in regards to the handling of the Tarpon. He has declined to make changes. It is because of this I ask for your support in boycotting the services and products offered by Ingman Marine. An alternate choice for Yamaha service is The Boat House on Placida Road. They are located only minutes from the Placida Road location of Ingman Marine. I also personally recommend using Abels Marine on Gasparilla Road. They are also close-by and good local people who do solid work. In fact, it is very likely both of these alternatives to Ingman Marine will save you money on any service performed to your boat. Let them know why you are using them instead of Ingman Marine, and they may even show appreciation by offering a discount.

Another helpful tactic would be to contact Grady-White Boats (Ingman Marine is an exclusive dealer of this boat manufacturer) and let them know you will not support Ingman Marine or their products because of their destructive attitude towards the Boca Grande Tarpon fishery and local environment. Their contact information is as follows:

Eddie Smith, Jr., CEO of Grady-White Boats has this posted on the company’s website:

“Dedication to Fisheries Resources and Coastal Environment
Eddie Smith has led Grady-White to be recognized as the boating industry’s leader in recreational fishing and coastal environment issues. Eddie himself has been recognized for lifetime achievement by the American Sportfishing Association, and has also been honored by the International Game Fish Association and many others for his commitment. Many of the managers and other employees at Grady-White are similarly dedicated to the long-term health of fisheries and coastal areas. A Grady-White boat is truly a symbol of dedication to the best kind of future for our children, our fisheries and our waterways.”

The first Tarpon ever recorded caught on hook and line was caught in 1885, just miles from Boca Grande Pass. That achievement marked the beginning of what has become a world-renown fishery that seasonally stretches all over Florida and from Virginia through Texas and the Caribbean.

Biologists believe that Tarpon use Boca Grande Pass as a meeting place before and after offshore spawning migrations. The Pass also provides an abundance of food giving the tarpon a better chance of healthy survival after the rigors of spawning. The fish come to the area from throughout the region. Since we know Tarpon can migrate long distances, we also know that what happens to tarpon in one location is important to tarpon in other locations. What happens in Boca Grande has implications for the regional Tarpon fishery from the Keys to the Panhandle.

The recent and alarming inception of the Professional Tarpon Tournament Series (PTTS), a high-impact, season-long for-profit tournament in Boca Grande Pass, is causing significant negative impacts to the Tarpon fishery. Tarpon have changed their movement, feeding, and spawning behaviors. The change in these patterns has altered the quality of the fishery.

Additionally, by the glorification and promotion of unsafe boat operations by the PTTS contestants on television, the safety of all anglers and boaters in Boca Grande Pass and the surrounding waterways is now threatened.

The actions of the PTTS, its sponsors, and participants show total disregard for the historically and culturally important tarpon fishery in Boca Grande Pass. The PTTS has purposely adopted unethical fishing practices to help facilitate higher TV ratings and profits–fishing practices that have long been known to the angling community as outdated and unsportsmanlike.

I, the undersigned, support the Save the Tarpon movement and call for the immediate termination of the Professional Tarpon Tournament Series (PTTS). This must be done to preserve the fishery for anglers of today and for the future health of the fishery.

We want to thank everyone for their generous and continuing support of Save The Tarpon’s ongoing “Fight Back Fund.” In less than two weeks you helped us meet and exceed our initial $20,000 goal – money we’re already putting to work, money we’re using RIGHT NOW to go toe-to-toe with Gary Ingman and his stable of PTTS lawyers.

We also have some game changing news to share. David M. Snyder , a nationally known media law expert whose clients have included CBS Broadcasting and the New York Times, has joined Save The Tarpon’s “Fight Back” legal team. And make no mistake, the game has now changed.

As you likely know, your efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. You got their attention in the only way Ingman and his flotilla of lawyers understand. Within days of our online campaign’s launch, and after you helped us raise more than $5,000 in a short 24 hour span, the PTTS panicked. You scared them with your outpouring of support. True to form, they’re now threatening to sue Save The Tarpon again. Why? They want to keep us from mustering the resources needed to continue to “Fight Back.”

It’s not happening.

In the face of this latest PTTS threat, and Ingman’s apparent willingness to spend whatever it takes to purchase our collective silence, we’ve taken a fresh look at what will be needed to put the unfiltered truth about the PTTS before a Charlotte County jury when Ingman’s day in court – and his day of reckoning – finally arrives. And with “snag, gaff and drag” a not-so-distant memory, we all understand what’s at stake and how easily it could all be lost.

With your help, we’ve turned the corner and we’re changing the game. Thanks for your continuing support of our efforts to protect and preserve the Boca Grande tarpon fishery.

The History…

In September of 2013, Florida’s fish and wildlife regulators heard you. They listened. They heard and they listened to your more than 27,000 voices as you demanded an end to the exploitation of one the planet’s most storied fisheries.

Your voices prompted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to stand up to the lawyers, the lobbyists, the legislative hired guns, the phony “Florida Tarpon Angler” front groups and the Tallahassee power players.

The seven FWC commissioners listened to your voices – to the voices of Save The Tarpon, its members and supporters – and cast a unanimous and historic vote to ban the notorious snatch and snag hook known as the “PTTS Jig” from the waters of Boca Grande Pass.

As anticipated, the Professional Tarpon Tournament Series and its owners retaliated less than a month later. The PTTS payback came in the form of a corruption of the court system known as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation , a perverse legal tactic typically used by deep pocket plaintiffs to spend advocacy groups like Save The Tarpon into submission.

The PTTS quickly deployed an armada of big-time, big-city, SLAPP-happy lawyers armed with truckloads of cash, bottomless billable hours and frivolous legal fictions, all designed to put money over merit by dragging Save The Tarpon from one courtroom to another – with the goal of keeping us in court until we ran out of money and the means to fight back. Two counties and three judges later, that’s where Save The Tarpon now finds itself.

In response, Save The Tarpon has established a legal defense campaign fund with a goal of raising a minimum of $20,000. Money we’ll use to fight back at Gary Ingman, Joe Mercurio, the PTTS and their SLAPP suit lawyers. Money we’ll use to aggressively defend your right to be heard as we work together to protect and preserve our historic fishery. And the PTTS is paying attention. They’re already taking steps to stop us by threatening additional legal action designed to cripple our strategic fundraising efforts. It won’t work.

The Gary Ingmans, the Joe Mercurios and the big money interests who brought us televised gaff and drag, the PTTS snag hook, the Wrap Boat Rodeo, the Spandex Ballet, the play-by-play shark attacks, the gutted tarpon and the tournament’s signature “controlled chaos” have now brought us perilously close to where our ability to carry the fight forward is in very real jeopardy.

“We’ll stop when someone makes us stop.”

With those words, Save The Tarpon was born. With those words, PTTS owner Gary Ingman dared Save The Tarpon into existence. “We’ll stop when someone makes us stop.”

Looking back, Ingman’s refusal to compromise, his refusal to even consider the most modest of reforms proposed by early critics of his high-flying TV tarpon tournament was, perhaps, understandable. Why should he?

In the spring of 2012, Ingman and his basic cable fishing show had figuratively taken title to Boca Grande Pass, a claim underwritten by some of the biggest and most powerful names in the business. Names like MillerCoors, Yamaha, Tires Plus and Costa del Mar. Ingman was holding all the cards. He was on top. For the moment.

Ingman’s “controlled chaos,” as PTTS front man Joe Mercurio would later stand before the FWC and smugly boast, was being piped into “more than 47 million” cable converter boxes throughout North America via ESPN, Fox Sports and the Sunshine Network. Meanwhile, Save The Tarpon was little more than a dinky Facebook page with a handful of followers. That was about to change.

“We’ll stop when someone makes us stop?”

Save The Tarpon accepted Ingman’s dare and went to work. Ingman had picked his fight. But we were determined to finish it. Within 18 short months, the improbable happened. Gaff and drag – Gone. The PTTS snag hook – Gone. Also gone were the big names and the big money promotional deals.

Save The Tarpon’s online educational efforts had served to alert the TV fishing tournament’s sponsors to the ugly reality of the abuses they were unwittingly underwriting. Individual economic pressure was also brought to bear. Sponsors slowly began drifting away. Gary Ingman’s dare had been accepted. And Gary Ingman had been made to stop.

In a bid designed to stem the bleeding, Ingman tossed open the checkbook. The high-priced Tampa SLAPP suit lawyers were summoned. And we saw the battleground move away from the court of public opinion and into a court of law where Ingman and the PTTS were determined to buy back all that had been lost.

(Incredibly, the PTTS initially filed suit in Sarasota County Circuit Court. Where, coincidentally, Mercurio’s father Fred happens to be a judge! Nice try, but it didn’t work. The PTTS lawyers later claimed filing in what was clearly the wrong jurisdiction – the one where Joe’s daddy was a judge – was a paperwork error, nothing more than an innocent mistake. What do you think?)

Ingman and his SLAPP suit lawyers are attacking Save The Tarpon’s constitutionally protected right to speak up and speak out in defense of the fishery. But they haven’t stopped there.

Our ability to work in concert to achieve a common good, a “fundamental freedom” etched into law by the Supreme Court, has also come under attack. As a result, Save The Tarpon now finds itself in danger of being summarily and arbitrarily gagged. And the danger is real. We’ve sadly come to learn that when money talks, the Constitution walks.

The intent of a SLAPP suit is to censor, intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with the expense of fighting costly and frivilous legal maneuvers until they have no choice but to abandon their criticism and opposition. And, absent your help, it’s about to happen to us. Our voices will be effectively and perhaps permanently silenced.

Tragically, there’s just one effective way to slap back at a SLAPP suit wielded by a SLAPP-happy, deep-pocketed Southwest Florida boat dealer out to buy back everything we’ve all worked so hard to accomplish.

Money.

Yes, money. Money for courtrooms. Money for lawyers. Money for motions, pleadings and appearances. Money we’ll need as we prepare to carry the unfiltered truth about Ingman, Mercurio and the PTTS into a Punta Gorda courtroom and place it before a jury of six Charlotte County citizens.

Money that sends a clear signal to the Ingmans, the Mercurios and the entire PTTS posse that we won’t be silenced, that we won’t be SLAPPed around, that we’re here to finish the fight they started and that no matter what, we won’t be bullied and we won’t back down.

Enough is enough.

We’re fighting for more than a fishery. And we won’t back down. We’re fighting for more than our shared right to speak freely and unafraid. And we won’t back down. We are, at the end of the day, fighting for our kids. For our kids and their kids. For future generations. That’s what this is about. What it’s always been about. It’s why it matters. And it’s why we can’t back down, why we won’t back down.

It’s why we’re asking you to take up our fight and once again make it your fight. To help us see it to the end, and to carry it forward in the months, years and decades to come.

Will you stand with us?

We once again need you at our side, to once again stand with us as we wage this latest battle to make our collective voices heard. To preserve all that has been won, with a keen understanding of how easily it could all be lost absent the resources needed to see this fight to the finish. We won’t be silenced. We won’t be bullied. We won’t allow a return to the days of snag, gaff, drag and dump. Together, we can send them a message..

We won’t be silenced.
We won’t be intimidated. We won’t be bullied. We won’t be spent into submission.We won’t quit.

The video appearing here was initially posted to Capt. Artie Price’s Facebook page late last month. Save The Tarpon re-posted the video to the group’s own 30,000+ follower page. In a few days, the video drew more than a half million views along with thousands of comments, shares and “likes.” Price and his video had […]

The following was posted to the Professional Tarpon Tournament Series website shortly before noon, Friday (Nov. 20, 2015), four days after tournament owner Silver King Entertainment LLC abruptly walked away from its lawsuit filed nearly three years ago against Save the Tarpon, its more than 28,000 members, its directors, its former directors and a number of names […]

A PTTS lawyer is once again threatening to haul Save The Tarpon into court – this time in an apparent effort to cripple the group’s legal defense fundraising efforts. Save The Tarpon is seeking to raise a minimum of $20,000 to fight a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (aka, “SLAPP Suit”) filed by Port Charlotte boat dealer […]